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Democrats on Benghazi panel leery of motives

They say GOP-led committee isn't following usual rules

The Columbian
Published: February 5, 2015, 4:00pm

WASHINGTON — A congressional investigation of the 2012 attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, is operating outside rules that require other House committees to disclose publicly how much money they spend and the issues they intend to pursue, according to Democrats on the panel.

The arrangement has added to suspicion among Democrats that the Republican-led committee — with no budget constraints or clear end date — is politically motivated and aimed primarily at damaging a likely White House run by Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time of the attacks in Libya.

The House investigation of Benghazi “operates with no limit on its budget or timeframe,” according to a letter of protest submitted by Democrats to the House Administration Committee, which oversees the chamber’s other panels.

The letter calls for a “public debate about the amount of additional time and money Congress plans to spend” investigating Benghazi, and for a public hearing before the House Administration committee, as is typically required of other panels.

The Benghazi committee is on course to spend more than $3 million, exceeding the annual budgets of long-standing committees that oversee veterans affairs and other issues, according to the letter.

The letter was signed by all five Democrats on the Benghazi panel, including Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the ranking minority member.

The conflict reflects the extent to which political tensions persist more than two years after attacks by Islamist militants killed four Americans in eastern Libya.

As many as eight previous investigations have rejected many of the most politically charged Benghazi allegations.

Democrats have said that they were excluded from interviews that Republican members conducted with Benghazi witnesses, meetings that Democrats said they found out about only after committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., had mentioned them publicly.

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